Milquetoast Update

This week's episode of The Apprentice opened with Alex conspiring with his fellow MagnaCorp teammates to form an alliance. (We're not sure why, as no one votes but Trump.) Actually, we are sure why: it was foreshadowing. Moments later, the teams gathered in front of the pizza kitchen in Trump Tower (random: back in the day, before Barnes & Nobles and Starbucks were on the scene, Trump Tower had one of the only clean public restrooms in Manhattan, and we visited it whenever we needed to). Where were we...yes, it was foreshadowing. Trump allowed the decimated NetWorth team to steal a MagnaCorp member, and all of a sudden Alex was on the wrong side of the tracks.

The teams were challenged to create a new pizza for Domino's. Alex came up with the name "Meatball Masterpiece" which for some reason the rest of his team considered a stroke of genius. Meanwhile, creepy Chris was in the midst of proving to Trump that he could live without chewing tobacco by chewing sunflower seeds and enjoying the effects of nicotine withdrawal. Apparently irritability (above and beyond Chris's usual irritability) is part of nicotine withdrawal, because Chris got ridiculously upset with Alex for alleged flirtation with customers and it immediately escalated into creepy name-calling, profanity, and hand gestures--all on Chris's part. Good thing we have Seattle Nice Alex, who stood up for himself and fairly calmly asked Chris to knock it off. All well and good, until Alex escalated it further by turning it into a situation in which he gossiped that he felt he had been threatened by Chris. Chris is a sucky creep, but he didn't threaten anyone.

In the pre-boardroom machinations, Alex reversed his position and announced to his teammate Stephanie that he wouldn't gun for Chris. (If Alex is as smart as we are beginning to think he might be, there's a possibility that he actually planned to gun for Stephanie, knowing that she was more of a threat to win the game than Chris, who is pretty much living on borrowed time.) Once in the boardroom, Stephanie brought up the "threaten" incident, which, in the retelling, exposed that she had not witnessed it as she was delivering pizzas in Brooklyn at the time. (Needless to say...the pizza-selling was going on in Manhattan. Bonehead move.) Bye-bye, Stephanie.

Though she is queen of the malaprop (this week she actually said "this ain't rocket scientist"), Tana continues to win us over with her good cheer and her marketing savvy. Could a woman win The Apprentice? Or will Alex continue his silent, calm trip to the top?